Hanna's SA election result challenge fails

The former independent member for Mitchell, Kris Hanna, has lost his challenge to the South Australian election result in Mitchell.

Labor's Alan Sibbons won the seat in Adelaide's south-west by less than 1 per cent.

In the Court of Disputed Returns, Mr Hanna claimed that ALP pamphlets and leaflets alleging he was soft on crime were defamatory and misleading, but Justice Ann Vanstone ruled against the claims.

Outside court, Mr Hanna expressed his disappointment.

"The thing that I'm most distressed about is that there was an opportunity with this case to set new standards of political campaigning but clearly our existing legislation is not good enough," he said.

Despite the ruling, ALP state secretary Michael Brown says the party may review its campaign tactics.

"We'll obviously be examining the judgement and look, anything that needs to be done, as part of that, we'll be doing," he said.